Method of making alloys.



HUNDREIDTHS T WALTER D. EDMONDS, 0F BOONVILLE, NEW YORK.

METHOD or MAKING ALLOYS.

No Drawing. Application filed February To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatl, IsAnoR LADOFF, a citizen of the United States,residing at Wilkinsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and\ useful Improvements inMethods of Making Alloys, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates particularly to the making of such alloysas that for example known as high speed steel, which depend for theirutility and perfection-upon alloy incorporation with a ferro metal of asdefinite respective quantities and propor-' as possible of a pluralityof certain rarer,harder, and more diflicultly workable metals, thesebeing, in this instance, tungsten, chromium andv vanadium, the whichrespectively contribute to impart to the so called steel final productwell known desired characteristics and behaviors, such as superiorhardness, tensile strength, resistance, 'etc., and'the objects of myinvention comprise provision of procedures whereby a suitable alloy of'such rarer metals, and, by aid thereof such final products can beproduced with greater economy, certainty, and by less highly skilledlabor than formerly.

I believe that hitherto in the manufacture of high speed steel forexample, it has-been the invariable practice to add to the predominantmolten ferro metal bath separately, the preliminarily separately pro- 5duced binary alloys of ferro metal, iron, for, example, and respectivelytungsten, chromium, vanadium in, as nearly as could be thus produced andascertained, the desired proportions. This procedure has not an onlyinvolved three separate preliminary operations .for production of thethree separate alloys thus employed, but also dificulty' in uniformlyproducing successive batches of each of said alloys in desired identity45 of composition, and consequent difficulty in sufliciently accuratelycalculating and weighing the respective quantities of each of saidalloys to be separately added-to the bath of ferro metal under tlOIlSquired for proper melting ordissolution of these separately producedbinary ferro alloys of these rarer, more refractory metals have provedundesirably expensive, and the relatively long time required, andrelatively Specification of Letters Patent.

treatment. More- 50 over, the degree and amount of heat re- PatentedApr, 10, 19W.

25,1916. Serial n6. 80,393.

extensive surfaces of said separately added alloys exposed during therelatively long time required to so melt them, has undesirably exposedsaid rarer metals to oxidation, etc., and undesirably promotedsegregation of resulting compounds and gases in the charge and finalproduct.

My present invention is based upon my discovery that the aforesaid, andother difliculties and imperfections of previous practice can be greatlyameliorated, or for the most part entirely overcome, by the preliminaryproduction of a single alloy of ferro metal with all of the said rarerand more refractory metals to be added to the ferro bath in order toproduce the desired final product. 1

Thus, in the manufacture of high speed steel, I preliminarily produce aquaternary alloy of iron with tungsten, chromium and vanadium, each ofthe three last mentioned metals being in the respective interrelatedproportions and total quantity required for the particular operation andfinal product in view, and this quaternary alloy of which the said rarermetals in their aggregate should preferably constitute not less than atleast fifty per cent. 1 ferro bath to be treated, in quantity calculatedto impart to the latter suflicient of said rarer metals, in requiredrespective proportime I have further discovered that, for the purpose ofadding it to a bath of ferro metal in the manufacture of high speed toolsteels, the aforesaid preliminary, quaternary, alloy of ferro metal withtungsten,

chromium, and vanadium is more effective, more econom cally made, andwith greater certainty as to proportions, effective and superior resultsby such direct reduction methods at temperatures lower than those offusion of the respective metals, as are disclosed, or claimed, inLetters Patent No. 1,040,699, and No. 1,042,694, granted .to merespectively on the 8th day of October, 1912 on the 29th. day ofOctober, 1912, and in my pending application for patent Serial Number55,418, fi1ed October 12, 1915.

Such metals may be summarized as consisting essentially of comminglingthe oxids of the respective metals and in presence of a carbonaceousagent reducing them at temperatures lower than those of fusion of thesaid metals.

then add, to the and with more By my said methods of producing my'peratures than any binary alloy such as forprellminary quaternaryalloy, I have much merly employed; and particularly also to bettercontrol, quantitatively as well as the fact that the surface presentedto oxidaqualitatively, of all the constituents of the t1on by mymultiplex alloy 1n comparison alloy, and produce it with lesstemperature to its weight and volume, is, other things cost, and withless risk of segregation at beln equal less than those of an equivalentany stage of the entire process. num er an quantity of binary alloys.

y said preliminary produced ferro alloy What claim as new and desire tosecure containing the said three other 'metals, in by Letters Patent isthe following, viz:

' re uired. ro ortions, I incor orate in re- 1. The method of makin hi hs eed tool q P P P g P tained, molten, ferro bath under treatment, mg ata single heat, a quaternary alloy of a and containing the usual more orless purev erro metal with tungsten, chromium and iron, carbon,manganese, etc. (After main- Vanadium, and of which alloy the saidtungtaining the usually required temperatures sten, chromium andvanadium constitute, in sufficiently long and high, to insure meltingtheir aggregate, not less than fifty per cent., of the thus ad ed alloyand its dissolution and thereafter melting the said alloy in a 1n thebath, the resulting melt is teamed, bath of ferro metal not comprised insaid cast, or otherwise treated as usual to proalloy.

duce the desired final product. 2. The method of making high speed steely my present invention above described, which comprises commingling witha ferro- I attain, among other things, the followin metal or its oxidoxids of tungsten, chrothe said rarer metals; also economy in heat ofthe melting points of their respective required, I having alsodiscovered that it metals, and thereafter melting the resulting requiresless expenditure of energy to proa loy in a bath of molten ferro-metal.

duce my one multiplex ferro alloy with the 3. An alloy comprising aferro-metal said three more refractory metals than to tungsten, chromiumand vanadium, and o produce a binary alloy of one only of such which itsaggregate of tungsten, chromium igetals with]1 a ffero; also avqidanceof oxand vanadium constitutes over fifty per cent. i ation, an o orma10D 0 se egationinducing deleterious compounds ogases in ISADOR LADOFF'the bath treated, and in the final product, Witnesses:

due to my single quaternary alloy melting or A. M. Coos, v

dissolving more rapidly and at lower tem- JAS. E. SWISSHELM.

